Polish industry has a great opportunity to permanently strengthen its position in global supply chains of the offshore wind energy sector. We are already a leader in the Baltic. The key to seizing this opportunity is to build competence, develop cooperation within a technical dialogue between specific sectors and companies – says Jakub Budzyński, Vice President of the Polish Offshore Wind Energy Society (PTMEW). – We will intensify our support in these challenges, which we as PTMEW have been taking up for a long time.
Paweł Wróbel, BalticWind.EU: Where is the Polish offshore wind energy sector now?
Jakub Budzynski, PTMEW: On the scale of the Baltic Sea region, we are the absolute leader despite a fledgling domestic market. We currently have around 3 GW of installed wind capacity in the Baltic Sea. Therefore, looking at our potential and the 11 GW of capacity already ‘decreed’ in legal regulations, it is clear that we are the regional leader. Poland has a chance to strengthen this position by, for example, unlocking further offshore areas for the realisation of next offshore wind farms.
Looking at the industrial base – there are areas of competence where Polish companies are not inferior in quality, while winning with their competitive prices. Examples can be multiplied – steel structures, essential elements of the power draw-out system (in the offshore and onshore part), including subsea cable systems, electrical equipment, high voltage and power transformers, elements of offshore turbines and, more broadly, wind power plants, shipbuilding industry, design offices of the shipyard industry, etc.
We are certainly already in a position to secure production and, partially, technical solutions related to floating wind farms , particularly with regard to the construction of support structures and final assembly and offshore installation.
Going further – we have very advanced competences in the area of farm development, i.e. services associated with a comprehensive environmental impact assessment campaign (IEA), we are able to perform practically the entire range of these investigations. Full-scale geotechnical surveys will also soon become possible.
For service and maintenance, the Polish industry will be able to provide a full range of services, i.e. an offshore coordination centre, port logistics, maintenance of the service base in the port, maintenance and operation of the fleet, all the way to turbine service technicians.
You can read the full article in BalticWind.EU Quarterly Country Report Poland Q3 2022.
